LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of Lee Lorch, distinguished citizen and devoted member of his community

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to honor and recognize individuals who made significant contributions to the human and civil rights of New York State, and therefore it is fitting and appropriate to recognize the life and work of Lee Lorch; and WHEREAS, Born on September 20, 1915 in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, Lee Lorch attended Townsend Harris High School, where he demonstrated a highly developed acumen for mathematics that would portend an extensive and decorated career in academia teaching at renowned colleges and universities in the United States and Canada; and WHEREAS, He later received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1935, and subsequently earned a doctorate degree at the University of Cincinnati in 1941, both of which nurtured his vast talent and allowed him to excel as a mathematician and professor; and WHEREAS, Lee Lorch became disenchanted with his employment in a draft- exempt position during the World War II effort and dutifully served his country by bravely enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps, serv- ing in India and the Pacific between 1943 and 1946; and WHEREAS, Following Lee Lorch's wartime service, he returned to New York City in the spring of 1946 to teach mathematics at the City College of New York and found a dire shortage of affordable housing; and WHEREAS, After tirelessly searching for two years to find suitable accommodations for his family, Lee Lorch was able to secure an apartment in Stuyvesant Town, Metropolitan Life's newly developed residential complex in Manhattan comprised of 35 buildings and 8,759 apartments for middle-income New Yorkers, with a preference for returning U.S. war veterans; and WHEREAS, He was keenly aware of the vile effects of racism from the atrocities committed in World War II and was morally offended by Metro- politan Life's policy barring African American residents from Stuyvesant Town; and WHEREAS, Lee Lorch joined 11 other tenants in forming the Town and Village Tenants Committee to End Discrimination in Stuyvesant Town, whose ranks eventually grew to 1,800; and WHEREAS, Lee Lorch proved his actions were equal to his words by open- ing his own apartment to an African American family, Hardine and Raphael Hendrix and their son, while he taught at a job outside of New York City; and WHEREAS, As a result of his efforts, those of the Town and Village Committee to End Discrimination, and growing political and economic pressure, Metropolitan Life finally relented in 1950, and ceased its discriminatory practice of barring African American residents from Stuy- vesant Town; and WHEREAS, Lee Lorch's determined battle to end discrimination at Stuy- vesant Town laid the groundwork for and presaged the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of dwellings; and WHEREAS, His anti-discrimination efforts unfortunately earned him a reputation as an agitator and troublemaker in the institutional academic community, which drove him from his job at City College and from a succession of other U.S. colleges and universities, before he settled in Canada, first at the University of Alberta and then, for the last 17 years of his career, at York University; and

WHEREAS, Lee Lorch's mathematical expertise and civil rights contrib- utions earned him respect and adulation at his many institutions, including The City University of New York, which awarded him an honorary degree in 1990; and WHEREAS, With his death on February 28, 2014, New York State lost a native son, one of New York City's foremost mathematicians and anti-dis- crimination fighters whose selfless efforts helped open one of Manhattan's most esteemed and enduring middle-class housing complexes for residents of every race; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to mourn the death of Lee Lorch, renowned mathematician, professor and humanitarian; and be it further RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran- smitted to the family of Lee Lorch.